attacking the poor cableguy in arizona . he was stung more than 100 times. he should be okay. time for the scrammled up. >> gretchen: this would be shark. >> shark. that is a story i am familiar with. "fox and friends" starts right now. >> gretchen: good morning, everyone. it is november 1st, 2012 and i am gretchen carlson. i hope you have a great day. we are talking about hurricane sandy because millions are without power and relying on generators for power. and now there is fear about gas shortage. >> steve: that is one of the few stations open. folks news e-mail that went to the state department and could be the smoking gun on libya.

>> president obama responding to hurricane from the situation room. but where was the picture on september 11th when americans over seas were killed in libya. "fox and friends" starts right now. ♪ ♪ "fox and friends". >> gretchen: good morning, peter is in for brian. >> steve: it is november 1st all saints day and yesterday's all souls day . and people are praying for help because millions are without power and millions in this area that are hurting. >> gretchen: no kidding. we have a fox news alert. remember the picture of september 11th? the white house pushing this picture. where was the picture on september 11th this year in

regard to ben benghazi. >> steve: and going to peter doocy who is live in the nation's capitol with a look at the president touring new jersey yesterday. >> that's right. president obama and governor christy stood side by side how n the garden city have to go before things get back to normal. the president promising he will do his best to make sure that happens as soon as possible. >> i can promise you the federal government will work closely with the state and local officials and we will not quit until this is done. >> the president will try to avoid red tape and bureaucracy can helping states that were slammed by sandy and yesterday's yesterday was void of about tuesday's election which is something that depov

gov christy appreciated . >> the president and i are big boys and business of politics and we are aware that the election is in six district attorneys and i asked him where he is campaign doing next . but most of the time we talked about the problems. >> governor christy is one of mitt romney's important surrogates and delivering the key note in the republican national convention two monthses ago. mitt romney is careful not to campaign too fely while people are in the east coast. as he made his closing argument. he made sure everyone in the event was thinking about everyone who is hurting. >> please go vote early and send a dollar extra to the red cross. for our folks that are in harm's way. >> today mitt romney will campaign in the state of

virginia as the president rallies in wisconsin and nevada and colorado, a sign that both campaigns are moving full steam ahead toward tuesday after slowing down in sandy's aftermath. back to you . >> steve: five-days to go . you saw it live when the president landed air force took marine 1 to tour the devastation in the jersey shore. interestingly enough. you can see the president of the united states shaking hands with chris christy. when they were in marine 1 and touring the shore line. someone had wrote romney. romney was a message that they got from marine one. >> election is not that far away. >> gretchen: meanwhile the widespread destruction for sandy is most expensive in history.

people are slowly getting back to daily routines. six million remain without power and could be weeks before the lights are turned back on. and the death tollis up to 74 . that number expected to keep climbing as workers comb through rubble. battery park of new york and we'll have the latest. good morning to you . >> we are right here in battery park underpass here walking along the police line. can'tcan't get further . there is 50 fet water. the president is been asked to send in crews in to try to dry this out. we'll be with them later today. we can tell you thatiers jers is dealing with all sors of transportation issues as limp

new york some of the subway systems will start to run at 6:00 today right around now it will get busy. we have live pictures for you from new jersey and fights breaking out in the pump. and half of the homes and businesses are without power and more than 80 percent of the filling stations are unable to sell gas. it is delaying the starting. major pipe lines and refineries are shut down. one thing that governor chris christy has done . he will allowing out of state sellers to be able to give the gas to all of the filling stayings in new jersey which is not allowed normally unless they are licensed to do so and that is welcome news to new jerseyians who were hardest hit by hurricane sandy.

>> gretchen: thank you very much. >> steve: one of the things regarding the gas situation. i drove up to the city and all gas stations were closed because of no electricity and they can't pump anything. so many people not only the cars are running dry, but portable generators run on gas phreen if you don't have gasoline you don't have electricity. when i drove to work this morning, you know the famous satellite picture of north korea where the lights are out, that's what it looked like. >> i was talking to friends here at fox. i am worried about getting into work. i have a generator and maybe we'll run out of gas for that. i need to have gasoline show up at work. >> you have to have three peoples to get in new york. we are all here this morning.

>> steve: i was going to add gretchen. millions of people in new york city area this morning are walking up absolutely frozen, it was very, error chilly. >> frozen in a lot of places. >> gretchen: the libya story that fox has aggressively covered. katherine harris one of our reporters breaking the story . it looks as if the month before the september 11th attack on the consulate in benghazi there was an alert that was sent out and foreshadowing and warning to the state department saying two things. al-qaida training camps that were happening in libya and in benghazi and the consulate could not defend any kind of coordinated attack. is this the smoking agun that people were looking for that this government knew the

situation a month before it happened? here is katherine. >> the status of the cable i really believe having red - read it, it is a smoking gun. an emergency meeting less than a month before the attack. people are told there are 10 islamic militias in benghazi . the consulate needs extra help. and this information goes to the directly to the office of secretary of state hillary clinton. >> steve: goes directly to hillary clinton . this flyies in the face of the mem that the white house is pushing. we didn't have warning that there was trouble there. that simply is not true . on august 8th. ambassador stevens sent a cable that benghazi was a security vacume and on september 11th the ambassador

was under fire and siege and growing problems with security and now the new cable shows there was a potential for a coordinated attack. clearly this is not the message that the white house wants to push. newt gingrich was on with shawn hanitet and he is disgusted by it >> the white house is playing games with us. who was in charge. who did the president say should take care of this? did they want to rescue the ambassador and people killed with him? why was nothing done for sevenhours? you now have 7 weeks of refusal to explain seven hours and i find it mystifying. >> gretchen: current politicians and senators and members of congress asking a lot of the questions . the white house is pushing a particular picture in the situation room for hurricane sandy. this is where they gathered.

many people are asking where that picture was from the benghazi situation room? we saw the images when osama bin laden was killed. that photo of hillary clinton with her hand over her mouth and where is the picture from benghazi? >> the whet white is good at putting tick tocks what the minute by minute from the president. the president would like to know more than anybody what happened on that day, and he is in the best position to do it. we have osama bin laden picture of the president and other white house officials looking in real-time at the take down of bin laden, these pictures of the decision-manging process on the night in which four americans died in libya have not come through . >> steve: in the pages of the washington post. david ignacious who is an

opinion writer has a story, it is probably time to see the unclassified tick tock and time line of what actually happened. people before the election, should have the right to know. and the state department refused to comment saying an is going. when we let you know, we'll tell you . >> gretchen: community in breezy point in new york raising a american flag after the devastation in their neighborhood. imagine if this is your neighborhood. 111 homes burned to the ground and others flooded. >> things like this happened in missouri and in california and they don't happen here . this is -- it is terrible. >> gretchen: amazingly no one was killed or seriously hurt. a train goes up in flames in

louisville, kentucky . they were trying to separate two rail cars that derailed. it was carries husband dus material. hobby lobby, a christian owned business will argue about employers having to cover insurance cost for the morning after pill . the hearing is expected to begin at 10 : 30 this morning. long-time senator bob men edez. daily caller reporting that while he was in dominican republic. that he used two prostitutes. they recognized him later as the septemberor. he is up for reelection on tuesday. his spokesman said we refuse to respond to a false accusation. mr. 1: that is quite a story.

exercise your second amendment right and you would pay the price. one county one step closer to taxing gun owners for health care costs. >> the president's david axelrod betting his own mustache on a win in minnesota. he might not want to see the polls. ♪ [ female announcer ] introducing u the latest coffee machine from nespresso. modular. intuitive. combines espresso and fresh milk. the new u. nespresso. what else? available at these fine retailers.

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it's a lobster, either way. [ male annncer ] the capital one cash rewards card. with a 50% annual cash bonus, it's the card for people who like more cash. [ italian accent ] 50% more dough! what's in your wallet? >> gretchen: minnesota hasn't elected a republicann president since richard nixon. and david axelrod said he doesn't think that will change any time soon. >> you can see them and allies in the super pacs headed in three states that they will not win. michigan, pennsylvania and minnesota. and soon of you may have seen.

i am so confident of that i put my musstatch on the line and i am confident that i will still have this much statch on november eighth. we will win those states. >> gretchen: latest polls show the president obama's lead shrinking in that blue state. here -- good morning to you. >> morning. >> gretchen: what do you make of david axelrod. is the mouse statch on. >> if romney win in minnesota. i would like hoim to david axelrod to come and we'll shave it for him. >> gretchen: this is the 2008 presidential race. barack obama way ahead of john mccain. and it is my understanding that in the polls recently for

this election that romney is inching closer to obama, is th correct? >> it is correct. it is in within the margin of error. >> what do you make of the surge? minnesota has been a blue state what do you make for romney? >> it is a conservative minnesota, gretchen. in 2010 minnesota won both studies of the legislatures, republicans did. we are seag a move to a conservative trend in minnesota. >> gretchen: the governor seat went to a democrat in a tight, tight election and senator al franken won with 312 vote,many of them disputed and michele bachmann is in a tight race or do it see it that way? >> i have known mitch mitch

for 10 years and one of the most dedicate hard working conservatives we have in congress and i believe she will prevail in that race. >> gretchen: she's up against tom graves. we have mitchell bachmann, republican 51 percent . jim graves 45 percent. and so that's outside of the margin of error . they had a recent debate i believe. did they not? >> they did. liberal media puts up the liberal e polls. michele has had a target on her back from the liberal media since she first went to congress. >> gretchen: thank you for getting up early. >>. >> gretchen: our veterans ripped off on car insurance, should they be charged more because they were not covered

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i >> steve: the afghan military will not be able to operate on its own after the american troops with draw. that is a report by the new inspector report by afghanistan. the reason, they have filled less than 40 percent of the positions and workers don't have the proper technical skills. and you are looking at an incredible new time lapse video showing sandy's strike on new york city.

capturing the intensity of the wind, rain and water and the same moment power goes out over lowwer manhattan. that's where peter johnson lives. >> not a fun moment. if you cancel your car insurance or forget to pay there will be an extra charge when you sign up again. insurance companies don't like a lapse in coverage. but should that policy apply to veterans that are deployed to war? former senator minority leader is supporting a new law aimed at changing that in california it is call would prop 33. it is on the ballot. how are you? >> i am doing great. >> a lot of controversusy in california. why is prop 33 good for active military folks in california? >> well, here in california, we have what is call would a persistency discount.

if you have a autoinsurance with a carrier for a long period of time you get a discount. if that coverage lapses, you lose the discount and it is not portable and you can't take to other companies. if you are in the military and don't need a car in afghanistan, you come back to california, you have lost that discount. prop 33 was written by an army major in large part to help the military by insuring that one, if you are in the military and deploy over seas, you don't lose persistency discount. >> if i miss a payment and deployed over seas, the policy will not be cancel would and i will not lose the discount, that is the point. >> the policy will not be cancelled and you will not lose the discount. it doesn't only benefit the military but we are in tough

economic times and you can miss up to three payments because of the economy and still not lose the persistency discount and if you lose your job or laid off. you can miss payments up to a year and a half and still not lose that discount. prop 33 is good for california consumers. >> there is some folks, we are about to end this, folks in the consumer watch dog say it is not good for people that are unemployed. general he good for californians? >> 48 other states have this law, we actually had it in california from 1996 to 2002, and rates went down. and by the way, uninsured motorist. the number of uninsured motorist dropped in half. this is good public policy and which is why republicans and democrats are supporting. >> bipartisan and we'll look for the resultos election day.

keep us up to date. >> thank you. >> what can early voting tell us about the outcome of the election. karl rove said way more than you think. hear from him coming up next. we told you about it next. al gore saying climate change is to blame for the monster storm sandy and the experts may have proved him wrong, that's next . happy birthday to lyle loveit he is 55. ♪ ♪ today's birthday is brought to you by red lobster. just $14.99! try as mu as you like, an way you like! like parmesan crusted shrimp. hurry in, offer ends soon! i'm ryan isabell and i see food differently.

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medicare open enrollment. now's the time. visit medicare.gov or call 1-800-medicare. ♪ >> steve: it is your shot of the morning, paul ryan sticking with a halloween tradition. they took their three kids out around the neighborhood in wisconsin. same place he trick-or-treated as a child, full circle. ryan's 10 year old daughter dressed up as katy perry and sons a goblin and ghost and witch . >> gretchen: we did a creative idea in connecticut. you can't just avoid. my tears were -- kids were in

tears. trunk or treating. a creating idea. we pull would up the car. the only person in town with power. luckily for her. and opened up the trunk and dumped it in the trunk. they went from car to car can still came home with a big box. >> thice thing to make the day. >> gretchen: it was great. >> steve: we told you about governor christie moving halloween to next monday and talking to the mayor of frank linn lakings. i don't know that we are going to have treats cleaned by now and there will be more power lines and talked to him about what he will do with the election. there were one or two polling places that didn't have generators. they had to figure it out. fox news polls out that show that voters still don't approve of the way the president is handling the

economy, but as you take a look. look at the top line. the way that the 45 percent now. but two years, you can see it was 10 percent lower. disapproval number high at 52 percent. that is a majority. >> gretchen: remember back in october 2010 tea party was surging and midterm elections and many republicans and new tea party candidates won in the house. you have to wonder if that is a good internal number for the president or if the disaprouval number will super seed the number. >> fox news pee'll poll shows that the candidate likely to create more jobbs it is higher for mitt romney. 54 percent against 41 percent compared to the president. that is an interesting vote are confidence of who will

create more jobbings. >> gretchen: i wonder how the storm will change the election . maybe we are too insulated about it. twitter or e-mail. does the storm change the scope of the election for you out there? or is the majority of the country will do what it was going to do before? >> steve: the latest fox news poll alongg with the other polls, show it is a dead heat with five-days to go and karl rove has a lot of numbers in his head. he was on with bill o'reilly and talking about the state of ohio which is critical to a win and looked at earl voting. this was telling. >> you want to look at real numberings. look at these, bill. ohio early and absentee ballots. democrats have cast 181,275

viewer early votes or requested that many absentee than in 2008. they have fire or five days to go. on the other hand republicans have voted or requested 75,858 more absentee ballots than four years. that is a delta of 250,000 from democrats to republicans and remember obama won it by 262,000. if you need evidence of how energized the republican base is in ohio. >> steve: lookk at gretch, your home state of minnesota and new mexico, romney people are putting ads on those states which had been, they figured they were solidlyy blue. maybe not so solidly. apparently romney is running ads in detroit. they think there is a chance to actually pull something off there. >> very interesting.

going back to hurricane sandy. wiping out a lot of towns on the jersey shore . look at before and after pictures of the boardwalk in atlantic city. i spent a lot of time there over the years certainty're starting since i was three years old. it is completely wiped out and people wondering, how can we rebuild? joining us live from reeds beach. genier davis. >> good morning to you. i talked to one full-time residents of the summer time community. he worries whether or not they will get back. it was a sanct for the families coming here for generation and watching the children watching the turtles. the surge had such power it blue away the bulk head and battered beach side homes. some casis it was under and

other cases over. it looked like one hollywood explosion as it blue out the back of the homes. they are red tagged on this stretch and labeled unsafe. these are scenes exup down the jersey coast. the good news is more than 500,000 people have power back. and more than two million remain without. you will find the national guard in place. road closers and still rescues . it is a diruation in hoboken where thousands are stranded. national guard is bringing in food and water. it feels like a state of emergency here. and feels like it could be a while before it is here. back to you guys. >> gretchen: thank you for that life report in jers jerss. the rest of the headlines. former democratic vice-president al gore blaming

climmate change for sandy. chief meteorologist bell said gore is wrong and we were overdue for a wrong. >> stunningly ignorant or deceptive what al gore said. 1950s, 10 major hurricanes ran the eastern sea board. he doesn't know what he shot about. he hot his mouth about katrina and we have seen record low levels. andrew cuomo linked climate change to sandy yesterday. >> steve: a county plans to move forward with a gun tax. under the plan will be a $25 tax on the fire arms and a plan to tax bullets. but the board dropped that because it would be more than the costs of ammunition. >> giant tiger shark.

maria, a black belt was swimming in maui. and the shark confronted her and she gave it a best punch in the nose. she got more than a hundred stitchos her hand and thigh. >> steve: that's what you are supposed to do. >> gretchen: a woman was told her bible shirt was offensive. they made her cover tup with a jacket. they say it violates election laws and the attorney said he wants an apology or there will be a lawsuit. >> steve: is the on the ballot there? >> that shirt is permissible. keep the shirt on. >> steve: 20 minutes before the top of the hour. navy seals outraged over what happened in benghazi posted this on facebook. but facebook took it down.

doesn't that vialate people's use of free speech. the judge will rule on that as he comes in studio e. >> gretchen: special information more at risk than usual. we'll explain. nobody said an inkjet had to be slow. or that printing in color had to cost a fortune. nobody said an all-in-one had to be bulky. or that you had to print from your desk. at least, nobody said it to us. introducing the business smart inkjet all-in-one series from brother. easy to use, it's the ultimate combination of speed, small size, and low-cost printing.

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introducing the new droid razr maxx hd by motorola. now more than ever droid does. ♪ >> we are back with big head lines. it is a largest cyber attack on tax agency. three million tax returns from 1998 hacked in the state of south carolina. the breach exposing social security numbers and 387,000 credit card numbers.

and forget swimming upstreamm. salmon is swimming up the street. try to get across the flooded road in the washington state near the sound. >> steve: looks like our neighborhood. >> gretchen: the white house refusing to send assistance . navy seals decided to fire back. >> steve: this post critical of president obama was taken off by the sites centsor. what happened to freedom of speech? joining us is judge napolitano. judge, people like to think that facebook is an all see fair it is not. it is hold by stock holders. >> we know that, many of them lostt a lot of money.

but it is a private corperationn and not owned by the government . as peter knows and many people watching us. the first amendment only restrains the government. as distasteful for them to kick people off of the platform because they disagree with the political message they can do so. but there is a bright side to the story. there was an overwhelming negative response to facebook when they kicked the adand statement from the seals off . that is back on and demonstrates what a lot of us talked about. main stream media is intentionally avoiding the story and it is profound interest of the american public. when is the government lying or telling the truth and saving lives and not doing its job. >> facebook had a statement and maybe you can help us figure out what it means it was an error and apologize for

inconvenience. our dedicated team reviews millions pieces of content and occasionallyy we bloke content we shouldn't had. they said it is a missteak. >> i don't know if that is true or a reg sensor with a political point of view and end an agenda decided to keck it off to see what happened happen. >> gretchen: why does facebook really care? they have so many subscribers. do you think it could back lashh on them? >> they are so huge. >> gretchen: i am surprised. >> if facebook took down postings from fox news viewers another facebook would come in existence and compete with them. that's the last thing they want. >> steve: this is blownn up in

their face. >> because we are all talking about it and not with stappeding the main stream media avoid it >> maybe it the change. >> maybe influence a few votes next week. >> gretchen: talk about a proper send off. susan say goodbye to - students say goodbye to a beloved coach. >> how can you avoid a disaster, getting scammed by the people you hired to fix your home. fowner of angie's list coming up next. ♪ [ male announcer ] you've reached the age where you don't back down from a challenge. this is the age of knowing how to make things happen. sowhy let erectile dysfunction get in your way?

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>> thousands of homes damaged, those families will spend this week focused on rebuilding theirr lives. how do you know which contractors to trust and joining us is fowner of angie's list. you can find it on the internet and call as well >> good morning, steve. >> steve: i was talking to my friend yesterday who has a gigantic 75 foot tree and yesterday a couple of guys with chain saws said we'll take that down for $2000 which is double the price. there are scammers out there and people trying to make money when people are desperate. >> yeah, unfortunately be careful in this time. there are people out there that will tryy to take advantage of you. be a smart consumer and do all

of your homework. it is a serious situation that we need to be care exclusively make the right choices and don't feel rushhed >> chris: do a visual inspection. >> go out and check the property and take photos. this is great information to hand over to your insurance agent to get the problem resolved. assess the damage and pictures speak a thousand word asks contact your insurance agent. first call to make and understand your policy so you are getting what you deserve. >> steve: then the guys that you want to entrust with the work, the contractor, you should probably check him out. you can sometimes ask a neighbor if you worked with this guy? >> investigate the company and make sure they have a good reputation and they are license insured especially when we are talking about roof

work and tree work. you don't want somebody working on your property that doesn't have insurance. injury or damage done from the contractor if they are not insured it goes against your homeowner insurance. >> steve: and get it in writing. what if he can't get gas because it is tight right now and find his employees. then what do you do? >> that's why you want thing in writing and want to know if you have a termination clause. you can go get machine else. taking a few extra minute to get it documented saves you a lot of headaches down the road. >> steve: talk about what to avoid. avoid strangers wanting cash up frontt. you will never see him again. >> unfortunately people do. i mean, the story that your friend had.

that is not unusual inuations like this. and so do not fall victim to someone coming door to door and they will do it for cash right there. and i have done work for your neighbor. don't feel pressured and do your homework. >> steve: sure, that is leak the other tip. avoidd caving in scare tactics and look. i might not be back and get me while i am still here. >> that's right. you want to make sure. you will not find anybody to do this. that tree lookks dangerous. you want it assessed properlyy . be sure you read what you are signing. people who signed documents and you have the right to talk to my insurance . if the insurance agrees, i get the work. be careful what you sign as well. >> steve: avoid settling on the first guy or contractor

who comes along and knocks on yourr door. >> if you have the opportunity. i encourage you to get three estmastes and that y way you know if they are charging too much for the job. it is important to make sure you are making the rightt decision. >> steve: i hear your ads on the radio. and that is a place to go when you prescreened a lot of them. >> you can find out if people used them and are happy with. >> steve: angie in minneapolis. i can see the lightts on . thank you very much. >> thank you. >> steve: straight ahead on this tuesday thursday, government can't do the math and so we will. we could give every family on welfare a $60,000 check if government did just one thing. we'll tell you what that one thing is. taking away kid's halloween cand tow teach them about the

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>> gretchen: good morning, everyone. today is thursday, november 1. here we go with a new month, 2012. i'm gretchen carlson. thanks for sharing your time with us. the storm may be over, but the recovery coming. who is going to pay for this? it's not uncle sam. the president says you, the american taxpayer. we'll explain. >> peter: the fox news exclusive, proof there was an emergency meeting about the dangers in benghazi one month before the deadly attack. still nothing was done. is this the smoking gun that unravels the cover-up? >> steve: the president wants you to share the wealth, but even children know this is not a great idea.

>> we can't. >> steve: the man behind the video, the candy man, is here today. "fox & friends," hour two for thursday, starts right now. >> steve: hello, folks. we got the lights on in studio e. and in brian's place, we got peter johnson, jr. >> peter: good morning. >> gretchen: let's kick off to your headlines because we have more devastating images coming from beach towns up and down the east coast. some of them completely wiped out. the widespread destruction caused by hurricane sandy could be the most recognition psive in the history of the united states. at this hours the death toll, unfortunately going up. now at 74. this morning, more than 6 million people remain without power. joining us live in new jersey is jennifer davis. good morning, jennifer. >> good morning to you.

another devastating and battered beach here. this is a community where homes have been passed down through the generations and people say it's beloved by people who have been coming for decades. it is far from an idyllic sanctuary. the force of sandy blew away the bulkhead and then battered these homes, blowing out entire sides of them. every one of them on this step of beach has been labeled unsafe to enter. the national guard is in this community this morning, as they are around the state. there is still flooding to contend with and hoboken, thousands remain trapped because of flood waters. the national guard is bringing them food and water and the mayor is asking for more supplies. there are still widespread power outages in the state. it has been restored to about 500,000 people, but more than 2 million remain in the dark. they say that more than half the gas stations in new york city and new jersey either are out of power or out of gas. so long lines stretch around the stations that are open and

working. it's still very much feeling like a state of emergency in new jersey and things feel far from normal. back to you guys. >> gretchen: jennifer davis showing us the destruction, probably the worst hit state other than the long island region of new york. out of the destruction, there is amazing stories. look at this. cents who lost everything in breezy point raising the american flag overt charred rubble of their home. this morning, new york's infrastructure is starting to get back on track. joining us live from battery park is anna kooiman. >> good morning to you and good morning to everybody at home. right here over my shoulder is the staten island ferry entrance. it is closed. service is suspended indefinitely. the battery park underpass full of 50 feet of water at the moment. new york's governor, andrew cuomo, saying he asked the president and he has said he will do it, bringing in the army and the navy, crews and equipment trying to start the

pumping at the world trade center and in the subways and in the tunnels. some of the subways did start running this morning and some 5 1/2 million people daily ride in these subways. it got started before 6:00 o'clock, limited service. transportation authorities lose $18 million every day the trains don't run. we have live aerial pictures of commuters trying to get in. no trains running. everybody else is forced to drive. there is a lot of road closures. new jersey experiencing similar problems. there is no time line for restarting their rail service. however, bus service will be restored today. another major issue, gas shortages. fights break out at the pump, tempers flairing. major pipelines and refineries along the east coast were shut down during the hurricane and power outages and other damage are delaying restarting fuel production. governor christie issued a waiver that will let gas stations purchase out of state

gas, which is something that normally isn't allowed unless they have special licenses. we can also tell you about the economic impact. fox business is reporting that it could be soaring over $20 billion. guys, back to you. >> steve: all right. thank you very much for the live report from battery park, or battery river, as it looks more like. >> peter: i drive through that river most every day. that connects the tip of southern manhattan. if you were driving manhattan yesterday, it's as close to a city wide gridlock as i've ever seen on the east side, west side, uptown, downtown. so many people have driven their cars in there. new restrictions beginning today that mayor bloomberg put in in terms of car pooling at certain times across bridges and tunnels. it was a devastating, tough day. took people three and four hours to get into new york city and three and four hours it get home. >> gretchen: those regulations haven't been in effect since after 9-11, the first time that some of the restrictions came into place.

luckily mass transit, will be up and running at least partially. >> steve: that's right. peter, you used the word devastating. the president of the united states got a good look at the devastation yesterday when he toured it with chris christie. afterwards, he did have some comments about how the federal government was there to help. this is actually two days ago, the president talking about how he was going to eliminate the red tape. >> my message to the federal government, no bureaucracy, no red tape. get resources where they're need as fast as possible, as hard as possible, and for the duration. >> steve: here is the thing, he's been president for four years. why is there still so much red tape? apparently there is. plus, there is this thing, the president showed up in new jersey with the guy who runs fema. fema is the operation that runs the federal flood insurance

program. a lot of people down along the jersey shore and long island as well, they have insurance for flooding through federal government. there could be tens of billions of dollars worth of damage and tens of billions of dollars worth of claims. but did you realize this? right now in the kitty of that particular flood program, they've got $3.8 billion. a lot of it is in loans and they still owe $18 billion from katrina. >> peter: what will be necessary, unfortunately it appears, is that there needs to be congressional authorization, that the president would have to go back to the congress and get additional money to fund the program going forward. we know that with regard to katrina, it cost about $3.8 billion. irene, $1.8 billion. we don't understand what this is going to be costing. maybe as great as katrina at this point. >> steve: absolutely.

>> gretchen: there is an argument about federal versus state. some said the states should be in charge of some of this relief money so you don't have to go and request to the federal. i understand why you have to go before congress, because otherwise you could have a situation where you're giving out money willy nilly. >> peter: in essence, fema has an ability to print money. and as we were talking about before, steve, who in the end will be paying for our flood damage in the short-term? who will be putting up the dollars? will china? will we be becoming more indebt to do china as a result of our floods? >> steve: that's right. it's never free money. congress can say okay, we're going to come up with the dough and here is the thing, fema has this gigantic program with over a trillion dollars worth of property insured, but they only got $3 billion in the bank. that's crazy. but because we've got such a gigantic deficit right now, peter, you're exactly right. if the congress says okay, let's put more money in the 'til for fema, that money is probable lea going to be borrowed from china. >> peter: also, people sign up

and they pay for flood insurance program and so they pay premiums and it should be paid. but there is a cost. >> gretchen: yeah. i think most americans don't mind paying taxes if it's going to help these devastated people. they might want to crack down on waste that we're in the government first. >> peter: that's absolutely right. >> gretchen: so when the president went to new jersey yesterday, he flew over point pleasant, one of the most devastated regions in new jersey with governor christie. somebody else had something else in mind. apparently they're not a president obama fan. because in all the sand that washed up, somebody put letters r, o, m, n, e, y. >> steve: why? because they love him. we have gotten some cables labeled secret that shows that about less than a month before the assault on our consulate in benghazi, apparently they had an emergency meeting to talk about the security there.

the next day after the emergency meeting, they sent to washington, d.c. and to hillary clinton, in fact, a cable that said, we're really worried about security here because there are a urge but of militias and al-qaeda training camps. they could not defend begins a coordinated attack and addressed it to hillary clinton. this is one of the things that katherine herrage was addressing last night on greta van susteren. >> the status of the cable is that i really believe having read it, that it is the smoking gun warning here. you've got this emergency meeting in benghazi less than a month before the attack. at that droving, the people are -- briefing, the people are told there are ten al-qaeda militias in benghazi. that they need extra help. this information goes directly to the office of the secretary of state, hillary clinton. >> gretchen: so why is this

problematic for the administration? because, of course, the narrative that was coming out of the administration was that there was no prior warning. this shows a month before there was this dire situation and we saw the e-mails that came from the ambassador himself as well. >> peter: we know the permanent wall was breached by an explosion, that there had been an assassination attempt on the british ambassador. the red cross facility had also been bombed. so there were assevers bombing -- a series of bombings and actions taken against american facilities in the past. >> steve: it started with a cover-up. it looks like there was a cover-up to many and now the administration is stonewalling because five days before the big election. here is newt gingrich last night on "hannity." >> it's very clear if you look at the reports we now have that the seals who -- the former seals who stayed to defend the ambassador and defend the consulate, they thought until they were killed at 4:00 o'clock in the morning, that there was

going to be a c 130 gunship overhead. they were using a laser designator to target the mortars that were the biggest threat and they apparently thought there was going to be an airplane overhead to take out those mortars. so they thought help was on the way. the white house is playing games with us. who was in charge? who did the president say should take care of this? did they want to, in fact, rescue the ambassador and the people who were being killed with him? why was nothing done for seven hours? you now have seven weeks of refusal to explain seven hours and i find it very mystifying. >> steve: a lot of people do. the state department was asked about this cable, the secret cable by fox news. the state department declined to comment, said hey, it's classified. they said wait for the investigation results which will be after the elections. >> gretchen: now the rest of the headlines. a real life halloween horror. a woman charged with the brutal

murders of her 7-year-old son and five-year-old girl in her care. police found the children during a well-being check at the 40 yearly's house in napeleville. they also -- napeleville and discovered two dogs stabbed to death. senator from new jersey, daily caller reporting while he was on vacation in the dominican republic, used the services of two prostitutes. the women say he agreed to give them $500. neither said they knew who he was, but recognized him later as the senator. he's up for reelection on tuesday. in response, his spokeswoman said, quote, we refuse to respond to a completely false accusation. those are your quick headlines. >> steve: straight ahead on this thursday, this idea really stinks. peta is demanding a memorial for fish killed in a car accident. get this, they want taxpayers to foot the bill. >> peter: we're just days away from the election and mitt romney's gaining ground with independent voters. but will that lead him to the white house? a fair and balanced debate with

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>> gretchen: brand-new fox news polls on the presidential race. among all likely voters, president obama and mitt romney in a dead heat, 46%. when it comes to the key independent voters, romney and ryan have a 7 point edge over the president and vice president. will these swing voters make the big difference on tuesday? here for a fair and balanced debate, juan williams and andrea tan tar rose. we always know it comes down to the independents in most cases. is this good news for romney and ryan? >> i think it is. i think you want to win those independents and they can be determined, as you just said. what you have to look at also is how they've been swinging. you see president obama's team had a bump up in recent months in terms of the independents. but it still is an advantage for romney.

>> gretchen: andrea? >> look at ohio, he's up six. virginia, up 21. florida, romney is up five. elections are won in the middle. barak obama had the same type of edge that romney can boast that he has now. remember, obama went on to win 54 to 44 john mccain. look, i think that's the most troubling number and i would point out by these new fox polls as well, it shows it's not just independents that the president is losing. he's actually down nine points among white men. six points among women. and four points among that critical youth vote that propelled him to the white house. all around every demographic, the president's underperforming and especially in that early voting. he has a 1-point -- 14-point deficit to what the president had before. these are all indicators that this election could go in romney's favor. >> gretchen: that's the demographics. let's talk about the issues with regard to the latest polls. who do you trust to handle the

economy? juan, on these four fronts, it looks like romney is edging president obama, in some cases big margin, specifically on the economy, 52 to 43 p. are you surprised at that? >> no. clearly the big issue in the election is the economy. and the strength that mitt romney has advertised all along is that he's a businessman. he knows business and he knows how to convey trust to other businessmen so they'll do more hiring with the profits they have. here is the thing that does surprise me is that given the importance of the economy, that the election is even in the fox poll and if you ask americans about the economy, what you see is that, for example, since the mid terms of 2010, the president, the assessment of president obama's handling of the economy has edged up. this goes back to what we were talking about a moment ago with andrea on independents. you see over the last month, president obama's plus 7 among independents. something is going on of the i think the big story is that the

surge that we saw with mitt romney after the first debate, that momentum seems to have stopped. >> gretchen: andrea, how do you respond to that? he brings up an interesting point that if it's all about the pocketbook, this election, and romney is scoring so much better on the economy, why are they've been in a dead heat? >> we've been asking this for months. how can this poll be even and it's been for a long time. how has the president maintained these high approval ratings, too? everyone points to his likeability. i would say, though, the negative advertising that he's used against mitt romney has been pretty devastating. i would also say the president is a likeable guy. the problem is, over the last couple of weeks after what happened in benghazi and other issues, popularity doesn't equal credibility. for an incumbent, he should be a lot higher up. i think his credibility has taken a toll on his likeability and favorability. >> gretchen: great analysis. i got to wrap it up. have a great rest of the week. >> you, too. >> gretchen: coming up next, own a gun, pay a tax?

it's all to help pay for health care? we'll explain. then the president wants to you share the wealth. but even kids know that's a bad idea? >> why? >> because you just stole my candy and i honestly didn't think i would ever quit. !

>> steve: time for news by the numbers. $250 million, that's how much stimulus money went to a 1, 2, 3 systems. they created 40 jobs with that stimulus money, which is more than $300,000 per job. the electric car battery company now bankrupt. next, $59,523. the congressional research service says enough was spent on welfare program this is year to write every four u.s. househole has check for nearly $60,000.

legal and illegal immigrants have gotten jobs since president obama took office. the report says only 1 million more american born citizens found jobs during that time. all right. peter? >> peter: yes, sir, steve. the president preaches about everyone getting their fair share. so our next guest took to the streets on halloween to redistribute some kids' candy. let's see how they liked it. >> fairness. >> peter: joining us, the man behind the video, steven crowder. good morning, steven. >> good morning, sir. >> peter: tell us a little bit about it and then we'll watch it. give us the set-up. >> sure. the video was going out to prove the point that economic leftism is immoral, even kids recognize

it as wrong to steal from one person to pay another person who hasn't earned it. you'll see that here. >> peter: let's watch it. >> we're going to give you a whole bunch of candy. we'll take this and give it to tyler. which is not cool. >> not fun. >> that seem fair, tyler? why not? >> because. >> because why? >> you had more than him >> peter: you were in a monkey suit as well, is that what's going on there? >> i don't even know what it was. i think it might have been a beaver costume. the kids were calling me a monkey. we ended up deciding that's what it was. >> peter: so you're saying this is like what's going on in the united states and that people -- >> yes. >> peter: people have a visceral

reaction that they want their stuff. if they've earned it, they want to keep it and they don't want to give it away, right? >> well, it's a matter of how wealth is being redistributed. regardless of the social issues from the left of aborting babies or the destruction of the american family, it's fundamentally immoral to steal someone to pay someone else. kids! you can see they recognize good and evil. here is what's so funny. the biggest criticism is you're saying conservatives are selfish like these kids? why do leftists consider itselfish for that kid who put on a costume, trick or treated for three hours to want to keep his candy, but not selfish fort kid next to him to want to take his candy and run off? why is it selfish for me to want to work my whole life and keep what i earned, but leftists don't consider itselfish for someone else want to take what i earned. that's what's in this video. we see it's fundamentally immoral. the leftists in this country are either one, fundamentally too stupid to understand the concept of selfishness or two, they

understand the concept of selfishness and pro-actively lying to the american people to try and manipulate it to make it fit their ideology. if i say anything wrong, i am so easy to find on twitter. >> peter: we'll find you. final question out of the box here, steve, did these kids get a candy refund? >> these kids got loaded with candy afterwards, bags of candy. >> peter: good to see you. coming up, tina wants a -- peta wants a memorial for fish killed in a car accident and they want the taxpayer, you, to foot the bill. then live pictures coming in right now of hundreds of cars waiting to fill up with gasoline in the wake of sandy. can't the federal government do something to fix this? why haven't they? eric bolling tells us why they haven't and why they can and should [ male announcer ] imagine facing the day with less chronic osteoarthritis pain. imagine living your life

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shortage. >> treasury officials were instruct to do waive requirements to prevent them from buying from out of state suppliers. >> steve: but is there more that can be done? joining us right now is eric bolling from "the five." >> the reason for the gas lines, number one, electricity to gas stations. that's not a supply problem. that's aroblem. >> steve: first of all, let's talk about how big the gas lines are. >> i drove, around my town, the line was around the block. i drove in, past 10th avenue. >> steve: this is from this morning? >> 10th avenue in new york, five blocks long. they were trying to access it from three ways. people were fighting for spots, cutting each other off. everyone understands, when you see a gas line and drive past it, you start to worry. >> steve: that's going to be me tomorrow. >> that's what's happening to

number two. it's fill up demand. massive fill-up demand. everyone wants gas. they're not buying five gallons or ten dollars. they're filling up. >> peter: also with the generators. people have generators. they're filling them up. >> but the big thing is people want gas in their tank in case they have orgeat somewhere. it's a natural reaction. that's what people too. creating a loft demand for gasoline. number three, we have refinery outages. we still refinery outages. two are starting. steve, put it up for one second. that's an epa problem. we haven't built a brand-new refinery. the epa has to get out of the way. we need more refinies. that's number one. number two, chris christie said he's going to relax the blending requirement for new jersey service stations which means you can bring gasoline in from pennsylvania, from new york, wherever else you can get it and bring it here. it should be like that all the time.

>> steve: absolutely. >> there should be no reason why gasoline costs x here and a dollar higher in another part of the country and that's only because of this location due to blending requirements and that's the epa. >> gretchen: they talked about that a lot in california because they have different epa regulations. let's talk about the job preview. that's going to be so important. these job numbers coming out friday. there was some speculation that maybe they would be delayed because of the storm and then there is speculation that there might be an uptick, that it might go up, unemployment, to 7.9%. >> i think it likely has to go up unless something is wrong. last month we saw it go from 8.1 -- the big number which comes out, by creating 100,000 jobs, 400,000 people went to temporary employment that they had never done before. so that needs to correct. and then the estimates are for 125,000 new jobs created in the month of october. either one of those things, a correction or few number of jobs

will push the rate back up. >> steve: that 125,000 is the government estimate. according to adp, the big payroll outfit, they're saying it will be 88,200. >> this morning they'll give us their estimates of private payroll. we get adp today at 8:15. 8:30, initial jobless claims, 370,000. a lot of jobs numbers coming out. for me, tomorrow morning at 8:30 i think -- at 8:31 you'll know who the next president is. if it starts with an 8, i believe it will be mitt romney. if it starts with a 7, barak obama has a good idea of staying in. >> gretchen: thanks so much. we'll probably see you again tomorrow. coming up, the death toll from hurricane sandy rising now. 74 people now. that number keeps going up. new jersey taking the biggest hit. the national guard was sent in to hoboken to rescue thousands

of people trapped in their homes after catastrophic flooding. joining us live from there is "fox business" network, jeff flock. you've gone from the shore to other parts of devastation, jeff. >> new jersey just can't catch a break. that national guard force is still here big time. look at all of these vehicles that are out here. they were rescuing people. at one point, the mayor said there were as many as 20,000 people that were stranded. so that national guard force was very well welcomed here. bee hive of activity here around city hall. this is city hall in hoboken. it's a shelter right now. to me, though, what's going to be the big problem here, and it's hard -- you asked for hoboken. but if you're in iowa somewhere, you go where is hoboken? take a look. if you look down the street, that's the hudson river, across that is new york city. it is right on the edge of new york and a lot of people live here, work there. they're not able to get anywhere

here today. to me, the big problem will be because nobody expected that river to come up this far and flood this place, flooded all the cars. these city streets are packed with cars, all flooded. they're all going to have to get towed out. it's going to be a mess. >> steve: it is indeed. >> gretchen: thanks very much for that update. >> steve: one of the things about hoboken, the boyhood home of frank sinatra. >> peter: that's true. i used to play football right close to that street. >> steve: now the national guard are on the street. >> peter: yeah. >> steve: obamacare taking center stage before a federal judge in oklahoma. hobby lobby, a christian-owned and operated business, will argue against the part of the president's healthcare law that requires employers to cover insurance costs for the morning after pill. the company says it violates its religious beliefs. hearing is set to begin at 10:30 this morning. >> peter: buy a gun and get taxed. that's what one county board in

illinois will vote to move forward on tomorrow. under the proposed plan, there would be a $25 tax on the purchase of a firearm. there was also a push to tax the bullets that go with them. but the board dropped them since the tax would be more than the actual price of the ammo. >> gretchen: this idea stinks. peta demanding a memorial for fish killed in a consider accident and they want taxpayers in california to foot the bill. they're asking the city of irvine for the sign to remind drivers that, quote, all animals feel pain. spokesman says the city says there is no plans to make any memorial. >> steve: meanwhile, a high school soccer coach heading off to afghanistan to fight for our country gets a surprise sendoff from the kids. ♪ here's my number ♪ so call me maybe. >> steve: that's nice. that is coach mike in the front of the line. students wanted to make sure they said good-bye in a special way. he leaves for training next

month before deploying to the country of afghanistan for a year. obviously very popular teacher because all the kids showed up. >> peter: well loved teacher. that's great. >> gretchen: coming up, after four years in office, the president finally has a plan to help the private sector. more government now. is he calling for a business czar? >> we should have one secretary of business instead of nine different departments. >> gretchen: stuart varney is back and here next to weigh in. >> peter: then some homeowners who lost everything to sandy are about to get a government handout. john stossel says that's a good thing. that's something you don't hear every day years ago, my doctor told me

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>> gretchen: 4 minutes after the top of the hour. jerry sandusky moved to a maximum security prison. he will be confined to his cell for all day but one hour for the next few decades. a great white shark caught off manhattan beach pier in california, between 7 and 8 feet long. the second great white caught in southern california. that shark released back into the ocean. steve? >> steve: the election now five days away. president obama is laying out a new plan to revive the private sector, by adding one more federal government job. >> i said i want to consolidate a whole bunch of government agencies. we should have one secretary of business instead of nine different departments that are dealing with things like giving loans to sba or helping

companies with exports. there should be a one stop shop. >> steve: let's get rid of some red tape. but does that really make the government even bigger or better? stuart varney joins us right now. what do you think of the president's idea for a secretary of business? >> it's a rotten idea. it makes the government bigger, makes the bureaucracy bigger. adds another layer of bureaucracy on top of business. it's not designed to help business at all. it is a political response to the president's antibusiness image. think about it, already we have a commerce department, energy department, a federal trade commission, we have a consumer protection bureaucracy. we have an energy department, f -- you name it, we've got it. all of them deal with business. are we going to get rid of all those bureaucrats who deal in those departments and put them all into one big new department with a cabinet secretary? that's out of the question. we're not going to get rid of anybody. we're going to add another level and layer on top of what we've already got.

>> steve: a lot of people, skeptical people are looking at it and going, the race is so tight right now. for the incumbent to be tied with the challenger right now, not particularly good news for him. but the challenger has got a lifetime of business experience and he's got business ideas. at the 11th hour action the president comes up with what you would consider i think a crazy idea? >> it is the 11th hour. the president does not have a strong pro-business image. he's got the exact opposite. he's an antibusiness guy. he comes up with this idea at the very last minute. it is a political answer to his image problem. it will not improve the regulation of business. it won't improve private enterprise. it won't bring private enterprise money back into the economy. it will just be another layer of bureaucracy imposed on the private sector. >> steve: i don't get where this idea came from. but he's already got that jobs council that -- when was the last time the jobs council met?

back in january? >> i think it was either that or it was last year. it's about a year since that jobs council met. >> steve: and reportedly, the guy who heads it from general electric reportedly he's going to vote for mitt romney. >> so i hear. so much for crony capitalism. >> steve: the other thing, if the president wanted a head of business, he could have appointed a business czar. >> what we all want to do is surely get private enterprise moving and expanding again so that they hire people and we have economic growth. a new secretary of business is very unlikely to achieve anything like that. >> steve: stuart varney, who will be on "fox business" network about 90 minutes from right now, thank you very much. >> thank you, steve. >> steve: straight ahead, here is something you don't hear john stossel say every day. thanks for the government handout. that's right. why stossel's taking your taxpayer cash and smiling all the way to the bank.

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>> gretchen: in the wake of hurricane sandy, thousands of homeowners will look to the federal government to pick up the tab. now the assistance program is in debt and john stossel who took the money for his own beach front home says he doesn't think the program should exist. here to explain, john stossel. >> i'm ashamed. i'm guilty. i built a beach front house. my father said, are you nuts? on the edge of an ocean. i correctly said, but dad, i can't lose 'cause there is this

thing called federal flood insurance. the premiums are cheap. but, well, there is what happened -- that's the house i built. i said, look at all the sand i have in front of the house! sure enough a couple years later, that sand washed away and i'll show the other picture, the basement was gone. you paid for a new basement there, thank you. i never invited you there. but you paid for it anyway. it went out again, you paid again. the whole house went. you covered the house. this is a program that encourages relatively affluent people to build in danger. >> peter: what's the evidence on that. you love dumping on this program. there will be a lot of people helped by this program -- >> so what. >> peter: wait a second. that are not on the beach that, are not on river fronts that are blocks in that never anticipated that the ocean would come, that the bay would come. they paid their premiums. they're not rich people like you were. if you're so rich, why don't you give the money back? >> i probably should and i won't rip you off again. i also take medicare and i

probably shouldn't take that either. >> you take medicare, you take deductions on your taxes. >> you're missing the point. >> peter: the point is, you're condemning people that are taking this that have paid their premiums that are not rich folks! >> why was the federal government selling it? i blame the politicians. we don't have special car insurance for lindsay lohan. the people four blocks in don't get -- >> peter: so people that paid the premium, should they not take the money? like you said -- >> i paid the premium. i'm going to take the money. of course you're going to take the money. >> peter: stop the program? >> stop rewarding people for taking foolish risks. >> steve: the problem is, and peter was talking about this earlier -- we're talking about the fema program that insures people in areas that would get flooded out. if there wasn't that kind of insurance -- >> there would be private insurance. >> steve: maybe. >> peter: that's why there is a

federal program. >> no! because the politicians said -- is there a reason the private company said, i don't think i want to -- >> peter: you think government doesn't have a role in anything, right? >> no, they have a role in keeping us safe. >> peter: wouldn't you rather have the premiums? isn't the government going to be paying off these claims one way or the other like they it in katrina? they pay off when there is no insurance in katrina. >> that's a mistake, too, paying off everybody. pay off the truly nude needy. but -- needy. there is all this money being poured into the coast and it's because the government subsidized it. >> steve: people would not build along a clearly dangerous -- it might happen 50 years. but they wouldn't have built -- >> if the free market provided the insurance, the premiums for people like me would have been high. >> gretchen: what about the communities that people like you built, if you built there, what was the benefit to the

community? >> you could say it created jobs. there were businesses that grew there. but then why don't i just break windows? that creates jobs, too. >> gretchen: break what? >> break windows. that will create jobs. >> peter: let's look at that house. i've never seen a house like that. how did they let you build that? did you have an architect? >> yeah. >> peter: it's on match sticks! it was going to fall! >> the government required those stilts because it was a flood area. >> steve: john, i know you collected three times from the federal government. it was an absolutely great deal 'cause your insurance premium each year was how much? >> couple hundred bucks. very cheap. but the politicians said, we know how to price it. there won't be floods all over the country. we won't lose money on this. now, of course, they're billions in debt. they insure more than a trillion dollars worth of property. >> steve: i got a feeling this would be something great for you to talk about on your program. >> and i am. >> steve: which airs tonight over on fox business. >> peter: i'll be watching. >> i'm going to drag him.

>> peter: you drag me in. >> steve: coming up at 8:15, bob massi with what you need to know about your flood insurance policy. he has got a bunch of ideas. that was spirited. thank you for joining us. >> gretchen: coming up on "fox & friends," brand-new developments in the wake of the storm. two panthers are on the loose right now? okay. >> peter: then some mothers who are trying to do it all are turning to pills to get through the day. and plenty of doctors say that it's a good idea? >> steve: expensive i had enough of feeling embarrassed about my skin. [ designer ] enough of just covering up my moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. i decided enough is enough. ♪ [ spa lady ] i started enbrel.

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>> gretchen: good morning, everyone. today is thursday, november 1, 2012. i'm gretchen carlson. thanks so much for sharing part of your day with us today.

less than a week until election day and it's a dead heat apparently. what both candidates are doing today is very telling. we're live on the campaign trail from wisconsin. >> steve: fox news exclusive. new cables that went straight to the state department could be the smoking gun on libya. damning evidence and what this says about the cover-up of a cover-up. >> peter: millions now without electricity. rely on gas powered generators for heat and water. but now lines for gasoline stretching miles and fear that it could run out. "fox & friends" starts right now >> gretchen: good morning, everybody. >> steve: unfortunately, the gas lines are not everywhere in new jersey and new york because most gas stations in new jersey in the affected area simply don't have electricity.

when i was driving home yesterday, there was one gas station. it was a dunken doughnuts, the line was, i think, a mile long. >> peter: 6 million people still don't have electricity here in this area this morning. >> gretchen: meanwhile, both president obama and mitt romney back from the trail with five days left in the campaign. >> steve: the president was talking about the trouble in new jersey yesterday. this comes as brand-new fox news polls show the race is a dead heat. mike emmanuel is live in green bay, wisconsin, with more. good morning to you, michael. >> steve, good morning. the fox news polls providing some fascinating data as both campaigns seek to create their final argument, if you will, their final pitch to voters to try to get support. let's take a look at the latest fox news polls. in the race for president among likely voters, a 46-46 tie. now for those who identified as extremely interested voters, it

shows the romney-ryan ticket leading the president 53-42. on the president's handling of the economy, 52% disapprove of the president's handling of the economy. last time we saw the president, he had not given a campaign speech since last weekend. last we heard he was talking to the victims of hurricane sandy. >> for those like people i just had the chance to meet on this block and throughout new jersey, throughout the region whose lives have been upended, my second message is we are here for you and we will not forget. we will follow up to make sure that you get all the help that you need until you've rebuilt. >> governor romney woke up in battle ground florida today. he's heading for battle ground virginia where he's due to make three stops and after hurricane sandy, his tone was perhaps a little modified.

>> please make sure that you go out and vote early. if you have a dollar extra, send it to the red cross for our friends that are in harm's way. i love you. i appreciate it and together we're going to win. >> and president obama will be here in green bay. he's also heading for battle ground nevada. also to battle ground colorado before he does a whole lot of work tomorrow in ohio. you look at those poll numbers and it's clear both campaigns have more work to do to try to convince voters that they should be president for the next four years. guys, back to you. >> steve: mike emmanuel live in wisconsin. it's interesting, it sounds at this point like the romney camp is trying to withstand the -- expand the electoral map. at this hour, now the romney campaign is putting up ads in minnesota and new mexico and extraordinarily, they've actually got t.v. ads on the air in detroit, which i'm sure the president of the united states figured he had in the bag. >> gretchen: as well as probably pennsylvania.

these are all states that are still too early to call as far as the swing states. many of them are within the margin of error within the polling right now. could it all come down to this early voting? karl rove breaks out his white board and his marker and gets into the number crunching and here he is. >> you want to look at some real numbers? take a look at these, bill. ohio, early and absentee ballots through tuesday night, democrats have cast 181,275 fewer early votes or requested. that many fewer absentee ballots than in 2008. they have still got four, five days to go. that number will go smaller. on the other hand, the republicans have already voted or requested 75,858 more absentee ballots or early votes than they did four years ago. that's a delta of about 256,000 swing from democrat to republicans. remember, obama won the state by 262,000. if you needed any evidence of

how energized the republican base is in states like ohio, take a look at this. >> steve: absolutely great point. plus you've got to wond what are will happen come tuesday in states like new jersey where a lot of the polling places will not be suitable for people to come into, how many different gymnasiums and stuff like that are being used as shelters. maybe it will wind up multi tasking with polling here and sleeping there. >> peter: hopefully you have progress by then. also big, big news, fox learned about a classified cable warning that the state department in august that the benghazi consulate could not be protected and could not withstand the coordinated attack. katherine herrage of fox news broke that story and she was on greta last night talking about whether, in fact, it's the smoking gun for a cover-up. >> the status of the cable said,

i really believe having read it, that it is the smoking gun warning here. you've got this emergency meeting in benghazi less than a month before the attack. at that briefing, the people are told that there are ten, ten islam insist militias and al-qaeda groups in benghazi. the consulate cannot sustain a coordinated attack, and that they need extra help. and this information goes directly to the office of the secretary of state, hillary clinton. >> gretchen: so this is a foreshadowing of the events of what ended up happening, unfortunately. you combine the things that's been happening, combine that with the personal e-mails that were coming from ambassador stevens saying look, i need help in the weeks before the attack. in fact, on the very day, september 11. then you wonder why there are not more answers. the big question still remaining for so many people is who came up with the narrative about the videotape? because it was pretty obvious that a month before there was

security concerns with regard to possible terror. so who came up with the idea that floating the videotape idea would be enough to carry through the discussion quite possibly 'til after the election. >> steve: keep in mind, at the time of the benghazi attack, the president of the united states doing pretty well when it came to foreign affairs in the polls. they said that he was doing a better job than mitt romney. then you've got this attack where clearly -- we knew within, what, two hours, that it was an affiliate of al-qaeda was on facebook taking credit for it. so that completely destroyed the nature active that the president of the united states had al-qaeda on the run. then you look at the fact that now in hindsight, you combine the two warnings from the ambassador who he mailed to the front office, we've got trouble here. then you look at the secret cable that fox news has gotten. you look at eric nordstrom, who testified and he said, i asked a bunch of times for stuff and it never came. it looks like the white house has a gigantic cover-up just a

few days now, five days before the election. newt gingrich was talking about this last night with sean. >> it's very clear, if you look at the reports we now have, that the seals who -- the former seals who had stayed to defend the ambassador and defend the consulate, they thought until they were killed at 4:00 o'clock in the morning, that there was going to be a c-130 gunship overhead because they were using a laser designator to target the mortars that were the biggest threat and they apparently thought there was going to be an airplane overhead to take out those mortars. so they thought help was on the way. the white house is playing games with us. who was in charge? who did the president say should take care of this? did they want to, in fact, rescue the ambassador and the people who were being killed with him? why was nothing done for seven hours? you now have seven weeks of refusal to explain seven hours and i find it very mystifying.

>> gretchen: they're probably going to skirt this well past the election. keep in mind that the first hearings on this are not going to hall until november 15, well after the election. >> peter: there has been an absolute and incredible and really disturbing main stream media blackout, intentional effort by the main stream media to ignore this incredibly important story, especially as to what the president, the vice president, and the secretary of defense were doing at around 5:00 o'clock on september 11 in terms of ordering or not ordering aid for the four people who eventually died in benghazi on that day. and so we've seen now pictures of president obama in the situation room for sandy for the monster storm, but a lot of people, including me from weeks ago, are saying, well, where are the photo attention of the benghazi situation room? how long president there? what did he do? did he watch it in real time? we know that a drone was above.

what was the decision making on that evening? >> gretchen: the response would be while the investigation is ongoing, but the -- not that that is suitable. but the interesting thing is they immediately put out the photo of the situation room after the osama bin laden killing. and many thought that would be highly classified. so that doesn't pass the mustard. >> peter: or they're embarrassed by it and don't want to discuss it, which i believe at this point. >> steve: the crazy thing is not only was there photo after bin laden was taken out, but then on the pages of some of america's major newspapers, the classified details of the operation were not leak out. they were pouring out. that was within a day or two. now we're seven weeks into this scandal and they've completely zipped their lip. >> peter: i was watching twitter yesterday as the president was talking down in south jersey with governor christie and he was talking about people not

being left behind and i saw a lot of tweets out there, people saying, well, did we leave behind our people in benghazi on september 11? >> steve: to give us some of your comments, here is a tweet from liz who says, they only push what benefits them. >> gretchen: and from hank in new york says what i see is christy leading the president around by the nose, making his decisions for him. if obama had consulted him before libya, lives might have been saved. of course, that's based on the fact that the president was visiting new jersey yesterday with the republican governor, chris christie. >> peter: hurricane sandy wiped out entire towns along the new jersey shore. all together the death toll now stands from sandy at 74. take a look at what was once the boardwalk in bellmawr. this and many other communities now wondering how in the world do they rebuild? joining us live from bellmawr, robert moses.

robert? >> peter, gretchen and steve, good morning to you and good morning, everyone. 24 national guard troops, according to the mayor, patrolling this short town of bellmawr. it's a a definite stated -- self stated town. look at that garage a block away from us, south of us. look how high the water comes up. as we spin around here, you can see the force of this storm as we walk down 18th avenue here. look at those two benches that the storm carried inland, about two blocks off the shore and just deposited in the front yard of that house. devastation here in bellmawr is immense. the government said he toured this town this past summer. he just doesn't recognize it. speak of the governor, as you talked about, quite a show of bipartisanship yesterday as new jersey governor chris christie and president obama toured sop of the hardest hit shore towns here in new jersey. you mentioned the death toll. here in new jersey, it's up to at least 14 deaths attributable

to hurricane sandy. the president greeted people yesterday and promised that the federal government will be here to help new jersey come back. that's the latest live from bellmawr, new jersey, robert moses, fox news. peter, gretchen, steve, back to you. >> steve: thank you very much. i was talking to some of my neighbors with shore houses, they don't know whether or not their houses are still standing because the police, for security reasons, won't let them back in and probably won't for two weeks. >> gretchen: lots of unknowns for people there. the road to recovery is going to be a long one. up next, bob massi on what you need to know if your home was hit. >> peter: then we told you about it yesterday, al gore saying climate change is to blame for monster storm sandy. but our expert says that's nothing but an inconvenient truth, or untruth [ male announcer ] every day, thousands of people like you, are choosing advil®

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>> peter: wind, rain, fires and even blizzards. damage estimates from hurricane sandy are between 30 and $50 billion. our next guest says that this is just the beginning of the insurance nightmare for homeowners. so what do you need to know about your insurance policy? joining us now from las vegas, fox news legal analyst, bob massi, and my friend. bob, how are you? >> peter, good. before we get into our questions, i want to apologize to those people in fort myers. it was decided and i think appropriately by fox news that that seminar i was going to do was canceled. notice was sent out by e-mail. sometimes people don't get them. i apologize. we will be doing it in the future down in fort myers. i think it was appropriate we cover this for what you're going

through in that part of the country. >> peter: absolutely. i want to come to one myself. first question, let's get out of the box. when we buy property insurance, what are the responsibility of the insurance company in dealing with you, the insured, when you submit a claim? what's their responsibility, bob? >> peter, you and i know as lawyers that there is what we call an applied covenant of good faith. meaning if i the insured put a claim in to the insurance company, that insurance company is to deal with me in good faith. i have to give them timely notice. they have to respond back to me to try to help me. that is a contractual understanding between you and i, the insured president insurer. >> peter: if they don't act in good faith, you have recourse and you can go to the state insurance department or bring a lawsuit, right? >> yes. you and i know, katrina had thousands of lawsuits, believe it or not, that still have been pending in the supreme court in louisiana where insurance companies denied coverage. >> peter: with sandy, we're

dealing with wind, floods and fires. how is this resolved if there are so-called exclusions in the contract on those issues? >> most carriers don't cover flood insurance. they specifically exclude it because they don't want to pay the claim. many carriers don't cover it because everyone parts of the country. there is federal govern through fema that you can actually buy flood insurance. the problem is going to be here action pete, is that with devastation you have experienced back east, there is not even going to be enough money there. so ultimately what's going to happen is you're going to see the taxpayers have to absorb so much of this loss. what's important, you're going to see a lot of litigation on wind issues. was it a result of tidal wave? did the fires happen? i want our viewers to know that when you contact these insurance companies that you paid premiums for for years, it's not going to necessarily be that they're going to sit down and write a check. >> peter: final question, the disputes that will arise out of

sandy, disputes on wind, disputes about deductibles maybe? >> deductibles will be some issues. there is going to be the causation issue to where did it come from? what it comes down to, peter, you and i know, again as lawyers, interpretation of language by the courts. a lot of these cases are going to be put in a court and judge also have to interpret the language. >> peter: bob, i want you in court and if i can't have you, i'll have me. good to see you. we'll see you next week. >> take care. >> peter: millions of tax returns hacked. is your personal information at risk? the story is coming up next. then, some mothers who are trying to do it all are turning to popping pills to get through the day. and plenty of doctors say that's a good idea. coming up. [ rosa ] i'm rosa and i quit smoking with chantix.

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every school. for them. for all of us. vote yes on thirty-eight. >> steve: quick headlines for you. it's being called the largest cyber attack against a state tax agency in the nation. 3.6 million tax returns from as far back as 1998 hacked in south carolina. the breach exposing social security numbers and about 387,000 of our credit card numbers. great. you're looking at an incredible new time lapse video showing sandy strike on new york city. it features the intensity of the wind and rain and water at the exact moment that the power goes out. look at that. there it goes out in lower manhattan. a lot of places, it is still not back on. gretch, over to you. >> gretchen: interesting topic here, moms forced to juggle jobs and taking care of their kids are taking new steps to get it all done. they're actually popping a pill

known as sderol used to tried adhd, and a increasingly number of women are taking it. joining me is mommy blogger and a doctor, addiction psychiatrist and medical director of resurrection behavioral health. good morning to both of you. >> good morning. >> gretchen: okay. jessica, i guess i'm shocked at this as a mom who also works and i can't imagine how popping pills would help that whole equation. >> don't look to me to explain it because i don't think anything about this is going to make your life a lot better. but i do know quite a few women who have taken aderol and with these sort of vague add diagnoses, i'm not sure it's doing them any favors. i'm not a physician, but i also think there is this sort of

shortcut to if i really want to function at a high level, i need to make sure i sleep enough, eat well, exercise, and take care of myself. if someone is going to offer may pill instead, i think there are times in our lives where it's very tempting. and particularly when you're raising young kids. i know people feel pulled a million different directions. >> gretchen: so they want to maybe focus and lose weight because maybe they don't feel like they have time to go to the gym or don't want to. we have a doctor on the panel, this is one of the most stupid things i've ever heard in my life t. really going on? >> well, we have an epidemic in this country of what's called the nonmedical use of prescription drugs. aderol is part of that. it's a powerful medication. it's a good one when it's appropriately used. but when it's used for performance enhancement, which is really what we're talking about, it's a misuse. it has potential problems with unintentional poisoning,

withdrawal. what goes up, must come down. then people start using drugs like xanax in order to come down. and you get this sort of better living through chemistry mentality. it's dangerous. >> gretchen: shocking. let's look at the stats which are also shocking. we should mention these are all legal drugs out there. the increase in aderol, prescriptions for women age 26 to 39 have increased by 750% in an eight-year span. jessica, you're on the west coast. is this just a west coast thing or is this happening all across the country? >> oh, no. this is very much an all across the country phenomenon. we not only have pharmacies here in los angeles. >> gretchen: i was wondering if things sometimes start on the coast and then move in. let's look at another stat. adults faking adhd in order to get the prescriptions. 25% of adult patients admit to faking those symptoms to get a prescription. doctor, is that how you see it happening or are there actually physicians who would just hand it out even if you don't have

the symptoms of attention deficit disorder? >> i think you have both. you certainly have mostphysiciao the best they can. they're busy. people come in. they're coached. they coach themselves on the symptoms and the physician tries to help. then, of course, you have a small number who will give you the drugs no matter what. but in general, it's something that's really eating away at the fabric of our nation. it's not just mothers. it's across the board. that's why we have these prescription monitoring programs now. this is a serious problem. >> gretchen: totally out of control. very interesting debate and eye opening. jessica and doctor, thanks for your time today. >> thank you. >> gretchen: can president obama win florida by blaming president bush? the state's former governor and president bush's brother, jeb bush, here live to react. it's the final weekly

unemployment report before voters go to the polls. it's going to be released in two minutes. charlie gasparino here with those numbers hey! did you know that honey nut cheerios has oats that can help lower cholesterol? and it tastes good? sure does! wow. it's the honey, it makes it taste so... well, would you look at the time... what's the rush? be happy. be healthy.

>> steve: this fox news

number? >> the economy clear israeli improving. i think it's improving off the bottom. it's a huge increase. i don't think this is enough to get an un-- it's politically speaking, it's that friday number that people will be focusing on of the what is the unemployment rate. >> steve: the monthly? >> yeah. i think that may tick up. particularly if more people are looking for work, it could have an impact on this race by picking up even though things are getting marginally better. >> gretchen: does this thursday number, which we always report weekly, the first-time unemployment claims, people walk into the office for the first time, does that number correlate? >> sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't. none of these numbers correlate very well. >> gretchen: so because this

went down and lower than expected doesn't mean unemployment will go down tomorrow? >> no. on friday, if the number goes up, for example, goes up to 8, let's say, 8%, that doesn't mean that things are necessarily bad 'cause more people are looking for work. they feel more confident. so all these numbers have to be looked at in context and -- remember, these are statistical estimates. they're not exact. >> steve: right. with the last monthly number we got, there were so many jobs added by the federal government. >> that, too. >> steve: and so many of them were part-time and we really want full-time jobs. >> economic growth is pretty meager. we're talking 2%. when you take out the government part of that economic growth, it's 1.3%, which is lousy. >> steve: all right. you wrote an op ed in the newspaper today here in new york about wall street's disaster nonplans. talk to us about the new york stock exchange down there, essentially under water. we got lucky, didn't we? >> i'm not suggesting people should have set up trading desks on the hudson river during the

flood. bottom line is this: this is this epicenter of global capitalism. they should have a contingency plan to at least stay open. they didn't. it looked like the wall street firms, which have offices all overt country, not just here in new york. they're in dallas. they could have set autopsy contingency plan to keep the markets open. i think that it's important that markets stay open. you need to know the value of ibm. like i said, two days, not a big deal. suppose it was two weeks? firms can't get financing. no one knows ha their portfolio is, that could be bad. >> gretchen: because officials had contingency plans since 9-11. they provide office space for people who live in the suburbs to go to their own desk and a computer. i'm just saying why the stock market didn't. >> yes. listen, yes. they do have contingency plans to basic work. but they don't have contingency plans to keep the markets running. i spent 20 minutes with a guy from goldman sachs to try to get him to tell me what exactly is

this contingency plan? why couldn't you open up an office in akron, ohio and do some trading? they couldn't really tell me. it's kind of pathetic after 9-11. >> peter: it's well said. they had a chance after 9-11 to do something and they haven't done it. so three strikes, we'll be out. now is the chance to do it. i agree with you. >> steve: charles, thank you, sir. >> gretchen: this morning, for the first time in days, new york's infrastructure starting to get back on track. a lot of people breathing a sigh of relief. joining us live from battery park which is way downtown new york with the new developments, anna kooiman. hi, anna. >> good morning to you and good morning to everybody at home. new york's mass transit system certainly trying dry out because it is still swamped. check out this building behind me. it's the staten island ferry service. that service is suspended indefinitely at the moment. this police line here is in front of the battery park underpass because there is 50 feet of water still there. your governor, andrew cuomo,

asked the federal government to bring in crews from both the army and the navy who were deployed after hurricane katrina to come in and start pumping out. they're going to be at the world trade center. they're going to be at the tunnels and in the subways. some of those subways did start running this morning just before 6:00 o'clock with limited service. 5 1/2 million people daily ride in these subways. the mta says they lose $18 million every single day that those trains don't run. governor cuomo has declared a transportation emergency, so fees for train, subways and buses will be waived today and tomorrow. we do have live aerial pictures of commuters trying to get into the city. there aren't any train, so everybody is coming in to work. they're having to drive because of the limitations on those. and there is still a lot of road closures as well. between 6:00 a.m. and midnight, only cars that are allowed to go over the east river bridges have to have three occupants or more in it. they're not giving tickets, but you have to have three or more.

it doesn't matter if the restrictions are in place or not, it's bottleneck everywhere. everywhere that you see. new jersey experiencing some similar problems. boats are up on elevated train tracks. there is no time line for restarting rail service. bus service will be restored today, we're told. there is a major issue with gas shortages. tempers are flairing at the pump and the mayor of blackfield said police responded to eight incidents over fights for break in line. more than 80% of filling stations are currently unable to sell and major pipelines were shut down during the hurricane. power outages and other damage really delaying restarting fuel production. governor chris christie has now issued a waiver that will let gas stations purchase out of state gas. typically you have to have a special license to be able to do so. as far as the economic impact goes, some estimates soar over $20 billion in this aftermath from hurricane sandy.

back to you. >> steve: anna kooiman, lower manhattan, thank you very much. the gas lines, i saw only one gas station open and i told you about it earlier. it was reminiscent of when jimmy carter was president of the united states and they had the -- according to your tag number, even days, even numbers would gas up this day. odd numbers, those days. the lines are extraordinary. >> peter: yeah. i'd like to -- the president is promising help and help is really needed in this area. how the federal government is going to assist on this. we need immediate help. really tough. >> gretchen: we want to show you this picture out of the destruction. there is amazing stories. look at this. residents who lost everything in breezy point, queen, new york, raising the american flag. that is the neighborhood that lost over 100 homes in a fire during the hurricane. patriotism still lives. >> steve: it does indeed. we've got other headlines. search underway now for two panthers on the loose in the florida area after hurricane sandy. this photo from the rescue back

in 2011 after their mother died. officials say a crashing tree broke open their fence at the white oak conservation center. they then broke free. they have radio collars transmitting their location. so maybe they can track them down. currently they think they might still be on the property. >> peter: we told you about this story yesterday. former democratic vice president al gore blaming climate change for hurricane sandy. chief meteorologists for weather bell says we were overdue for a storm like sandy and gore couldn't be more wrong. >> that stunningly ignorant or stunningly depptive what al gore said. in the 1950s from 1954 to 1960, ten major hurricanes ran the eastern seaboard. he doesn't know what he's talking about and ever since he shot his mouth off about katrina, we've seen total global tropical activity go to record low levels. >> beth: democratic new york governor andrew cuomo linked climate change to sandy.

>> gretchen: the man who wrote the hit "oh, pretty woman" with singer roy orbison has died. ♪ pretty woman walking down the street ♪ ♪ pretty wop ♪ the kind i'd like to meet ♪ . >> gretchen: bill dees passed away last week in arkansas. he once said that writing a song with issueison changed his life forever. they were recorded by johnny cash and loretta lynn. he was 73 years old. those are your headlines today. >> steve: coming up next on the rundown on this thursday, can president obama win the state of florida by blaming former president bush? the former president's brother, who was once upon a time the governor of florida, jeb bush, joins us live next. ♪

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>> steve: in the wake of hurricane sandy, president obama has urged the federal government to act quickly and cut red tape for the relief efforts. our next guest says it's the response on the state level that's really key. joining us now is a guy who knows all about dealing with hurricanes in his former -- his state, former florida governor, jeb bush. governor, good morning to you. >> good morning, steve. it is kind of eerie to be sitting in beautiful florida, about 65 degrees without a cloud in the sky and seeing devastation of a hurricane in the northeast. i wouldn't have ever imagined it. >> steve: yeah. nobody knows more about this kind of clean-up than a governor from florida. i live in new jersey and our governor, chris christie, met up with the president of the united states yesterday and at the end, the governor announced that we've got something like half a

million gallons of diesel, which we really need 100 big generators coming in. that's the kind of stuff that governors do when it comes to big, gigantic disasters like this. >> yeah. absolutely. the governor has, in his emergency response center in new jersey a other places, have vast resources, coordinated at the local level with the private sector and the federal government as a partner to provide assistance. but the governor is really the commander in chief of the response to this and the recovery efforts. i think watching on television, seeing mayor bloomberg and governor christie, they're doing a fine job. you don't have to have an r and d, this is not a political thing. they're doing what's best for the people of their state. you can see it. you can just see how they respond and they're doing fine. >> steve: okay. meanwhile, in addition to the hurricane, we've got the

campaign and i know you were out with mitt romney yesterday along with marco rubio and connie mac. florida right now looks like, according to the poll, still a toss-up. what do you think about mitt romney's chances of being president come six days from now >> i think governor romney -- it's close race for sure, but i think he's going to carry florida. the intensity is on our side. the other phenomenon that doesn't get a lot of attention is independent voters decide a loft elections. if you assume similar intensity between democrats and republicans, independents really will decide the election and in almost every poll that romney is winning, either by double digits or high single digits among independent voters. they've decided that he's the guy that can begin to solve problems. i agree with them. i think they're right. i think their instincts are correct about this. i think that will be the difference in the election. it will be a close election, but i do believe that governor romney is probably doing better

than what the polls show because of intensity and the swing voters at the end will swing towards him as they have been doing. >> steve: one of the things about your state, florida is there are a loft people on fixed income and a lot of retired people and when they hear mitt romney and paul ryan talk about figuring a way to fix medicare and social security, they go, you know what, i'm on that, i like that idea. the other side, the president of the united states really hasn't come up with a plan and hasn't made that public. so i would imagine if i were down in florida, i'd be looking at the guy who has at least got the plan for a second look. >> steve, i'll tell you, in contrary to all the conventional wisdom, the chattering class, elder voters in florida have consistently supported romney-ryan and there has been no change amongst voters over the age of 65 in florida. mitt romney is winning by double

digits. all the scare tactics haven't worked. i think it's to your point. i think it's because the romney-ryan ticket has persuaded and explained what their plan is and the president has been left just to attack. i mean, for him to think or say that it's very difficult to get things done from the inside is pretty telling. he's the president of the united states. if he can't do it, maybe he should step aside and let someone else try. >> steve: i think it was two years ago i was down in bonita springs for your celebration for reading program, which is great. you raised hundreds of millions of dollars for folks. and at that time i did an interview for this program and i asked you, two years ago, can you believe the president of the united states is blaming your brother for the mess he's in? it's two years later, he's still doing it! >> i know. i ought to keep my mouth shut about this, but it perturbs me to no end to have in the fourth year of a presidency, the president constantly be talking about the past.

i mean, the guy was dealt a tough hand. we got that. but in the fourth year, you should be held responsible for your actions. and it's like this constant refrain, almost as though your kid comes and says the dog ate my homework, you know. at some point you have to accept responsibility. leaders do that. and i'm sure the guy's motives are good, but this whole insistence on pushing someone else down to make yourself look better is really not what leadership is about. >> steve: former governor of the great state of florida, thank you very much. >> take care. >> steve: straight ahead when we come back, we'll go live to a new jersey city where thousands are stranded and the national guard is patrolling. first, let's check in with martha mccallum who lives in new jersey with a preview of what happens in ten minutes. >> boy, steve, unbelievable scenes. this morning brings more harsh reality of the mess that is left behind by sandy. campaign now five days away.

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>> peter: we have quick headlines for you. a county in illinois plans to move forward with a proposed gun tax. a board will vote on it tomorrow. under the plan, there would be a $25 tax on the purchase of a firearm. there was also a push to tax the bullets, but the board dropped it since the tax would be more than the actual price of the ammunition. a congressional research service report shows $1 trillion was spent on welfare last year in the united states. that's enough to send every poor household in the usa a check for

nearly $60,000. >> gretchen: back to our top story, the death toll now from hurricane sandy, unfortunately rising. at least 74 people have died. as we mentioned, new jersey taking the biggest hit. the national guard sent in to hoboken to try and rescue thousands of people trapped in their homes after the catastrophic flooding there. >> steve: now let's go across the river as well to ridgefield, new jersey. no, it's not 1973. there are dozens and dozens of drivers waiting on-line for gas right now. sandy causing a shortage for many reasons, including refineries that have shut down. governor chris christie issued a waiver, allowing gas stations and other fuel purchasers to get gas from out of state suppliers. they don't normally do that. normally merchants not license to do import fuel that they can not legally buy it from other states. keep in mind, not only are those

cars running out of gas, but a lot of those -- look there. there is one of the guys who has a bucket truck, he needs to be on assignment. a lot of those cars have gas canisters they need to fill up their generators because that's the only way they can generate heat in many of their houses. >> peter: for the first time in days, new york's infrastructure is starting to get back on track. some subways and trains running this morning and the new york subway system. this is a live look at the battery park tunnel. underpass. it's still flooded. that's about 50 feet of water to the ceiling. cars are submerged under there. some good news, though. la guardia airport, which was immersed in water. kennedy had a tremendous amount of water, but is back open just one hour ago. that's faster than anticipated. >> gretchen: i'm shocked that la guardia is open because it was all under water. that's great news for all of those people trying to get out

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